52 THROUGH CANADA 



cataract could be distinctly heard above the rumble 

 of the cars. The forest covers an area of 1,800,000 

 acres, intersected with over a thousand lakes and 

 rivers. The sense of vastness which this suggests is 

 overwhelming. It is Canada in its primitive and 

 undisturbed condition. Put down in the midst of 

 Algonquin a line of fifty miles extends in every direc- 

 tion without a break, through primeval forest and lake, 

 except where fire has burned a clearing, a trail has 

 been made, or a tornado ripped a gap. Everything 

 is as it was a thousand years ago ; the fish that swim 

 its water ; the beaver that constructs its dam ; the 

 wild deer that on nimble feet rush through its 

 thickets ; the bear that wags his sullen head in 

 ambling gait, and the woodpecker that rings from its 

 majestic pines the weird vibrating note. 



Cache lake was our starting point for a canoe trip 

 through the waterway of the forest. In looking 

 across, it seemed land-bound and isolated ; but what 

 appeared to be forest, on nearer approach proved to 

 be overlapping islands. The ranger that accom- 

 panied me paddled for a certain point, and as the 

 canoe approached, something like an enormous 

 foliage gate threw open its portals, disclosing a 

 second lake lying beyond. In reality Cache is only 

 a link in a chain of lakes, all connected by narrow 

 cuttings and ultimately passing from the forest in 

 rivers like the Muskoka and Madawaska, which glide 

 and leap and brawl until they grow silent in greater 



